Legendrian varieties

DOI10.4310/AJM.2007.V11.N3.A1MaRDI QIDQ2477148zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Laurent Manivel, J. M. Landsberg

Publication date 13 March 2008

Published in The Asian Journal of Mathematics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/math/0407279, https://projecteuclid.org/euclid.ajm/1201186416

zbMATH Keywords

Chern classKummer surfaceLegendrian variety

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Special surfaces (14J25) (K3) surfaces and Enriques surfaces (14J28) Special varieties (14M99) Symplectic geometry, contact geometry (53D99)

Abstract: We investigate the geometry of Legendrian complex projective manifolds $XsubsetPPV$. By definition, this means $V$ is a complex vector space of dimension $2n+2$, endowed with a symplectic form, and the affine tangent space to $X$ at each point is a maximal isotropic subspace. We establish basic facts about their geometry and exhibit examples of inhomogeneous smooth Legendrian varieties, the first examples of such in dimension greater than one.

Review text

Let \(X\) be complex projective manifold \(X\) of dimension \(n\) embedded in a projective space \(\mathbb{P} V\) of dimension \(2n+1\). We say that the embedded manifold \(X\) is Legendrian if \(V\) can be endowed with a symplectic form such that in every point of \(X\) the affine tangent space to \(X\) is a maximal isotropic subspace. One reason to study such varieties is that any projective manifold of dimension \(n\) embeds in a projective space of dimension \(2n+1\), so it is natural to ask if there are some embeddings with special properties. By a theorem of \textit{R. Bryant} [in: The mathematical heritage of Hermann Weyl, Proc. Symp., Durham/NC 1987, Proc. Symp. Pure Math. 48, 227--240 (1988; Zbl 0654.53010)] every smooth curve admits a Legendrian embedding in \(\mathbb{P}^3\), but in higher dimension the authors establish a series of Chern class identities that yield strong restrictions on Legendrian varieties. This implies a series of corollaries, for example an abelian variety of dimension at least two is never Legendrian. Another motivation is the relation with contact Fano manifolds: \textit{S. Kebekus} has shown [J. Reine Angew. Math. 539, 167--177 (2001; Zbl 0983.53031)] that if \(Y\) is a smooth contact Fano manifold with Picard number one that is not the projective space, the set of tangent directions to contact lines passing through a general point is a smooth Legendrian variety \(X\) in its linear span. In the paper under review the authors show that if \(X\) is rational homogeneous (i.e. a quotient of a semi-simple algebraic group \(G\) by some parabolic subgroup \(P\)) with Picard number one and Legendrian, then it is the set of lines passing through a point of a contact Fano manifold \(Y\), the adjoint variety to \(G\). The second half of the paper is devoted to the construction of an example of a non-homogeneous smooth Legendrian surface: Let \(Z\) be a Kummer quartic surface in \(\mathbb{P}^3\), that is a quartic surface with sixteen double points as singularities. Its dual variety \(Z^*\) is again a Kummer quartic surface and there exists a \(K3\) surface \(Z^\#\) that resolves the singularities of \(Z\) and \(Z^*\). The pull-back of general hyperplane sections from \(Z\) and \(Z^*\) to the \(K3\) surface \(Z^\#\) meet transversely in twelve points. The authors show that the blow-up of these twelve points is Legendrian. We refer to the paper for the ideas behind this beautiful construction. Note that since the publication of this paper, \textit{J. Buczyński} has constructed further examples of non-homogeneous Legendrian varieties [Hyperplane sections of Legendrian subvarieties, 2007, \url{arXiv:math/0701590}].

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Cited in

(31)

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• Identifiability and singular locus of secant varieties to Grassmannians
• Classification of equivariant Legendrian embeddings of rational homogeneous spaces into nilpotent orbits
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• Geometrical description of smooth projective symmetric varieties with Picard number one

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